A TEENAGER accused of murder has claimed he was the victim of two unprovoked assaults following a row which began when he was called a “chav”.

Scott Fullam was in the witness box at Teesside Crown Court yesterday to tell the jury he had first been “strangled” by Ron Sharples and then punched in the nose by another man in the New Year’s Day altercation.

Fullam, who had been drinking, claimed he had been walking down Inglewood Avenue in Marske heading for a party and passed a man and two women.

“As we went to go past, I heard a woman’s voice call us something like ‘chavs’,” said Fullam.

“I turned around and basically said, maybe in a cheeky way, ‘how can you call me a chav?’

“We were dressed smartly.”

Fullam told the jury that he had suffered from constantly being called a ‘chav’ at school and didn’t care for the term.

He denied being threatening or violent and said it was Mr Sharples who became aggressive with him.

“The man, who I now know as Mr Sharples, grabbed hold of me by the throat and pinned me against the red fence.”

His defence barrister Alistair MacDonald QC asked him: “Had you done anything to justify being grabbed around the neck in that way?”

Fullam told the jury he ran away from the scene only to be confronted further up the road by another man who he did not know who punched him on the nose.

The court heard Fullam got up and ran again, only to be rugby tackled to the ground by a police officer. Fullam said he then wriggled out of the officer’s grasp and ran away.

In cross examination prosecutor Jeremy Richardson QC said: “Already you had been attacked by Mr Sharples and lo and behold, as you are running away a complete stranger comes from your left and punches you in the face?

“You must have been really rather shocked. You must have thought to yourself ‘for what?’”

“Did you at any stage think to yourself, when you saw the police officer, thank goodness you have arrived?”

Fullam told the court he ran from the officer because he didn’t want to be in any trouble with his parents who had let him spend New Year’s Eve with his friends and warned him not to get in any bother.

Mr Sharples died after suffering severe head injuries in a fall that some witnesses say was caused by Fullam and Appleby attacking him.

Fullam, who stands at 5ft 1ins, was accused by the prosecution of pushing Mr Sharples to his death.

Mr Richardson said: “So if individuals have said it was a small man they saw doing that, it wasn’t you.?”

“It wasn’t me,” said Fullam.

The teenager said he had no idea Mr Sharples had died, or been injured when he fled the scene.

He said he first became aware of Mr Sharples’ death later in the day when he found a text message from his mother.

The court heard Fullam’s mother was not told by police why they wanted to speak to her son but she had seen on the news a man had died in Marske.

Fullam said he went home, spoke to his mum, showered, then handed himself in at Kirkleatham Police Station.

Mr MacDonald said to his client: “Did you think you had anything to do with the death of a man in that area?”

“None whatsoever,” he replied.

The prosecution allege Mr Sharples tried to intervene when a row broke out, and was punched to the ground, but got up.

The Crown allege that moments later, Appleby kicked and Fullam simultaneously pushed Mr Sharples to the floor, causing him to smash the back of his head.

Fullam, of Hawkins Close, Marske, and Appleby, of Cliff Street, New Marske, both 18, deny murder.

Tim Roberts QC, for Appleby, called no evidence on behalf of his client.